Over the past few months, I have seen many comments pertaining to our Laker community, blog and forums alike, and I feel this is the right time to address our situation as it currently stands. This is a lengthy post, but it is important for everyone to read.

LAKER NATION FORUMS

LakerNation.com has undoubtedly the best Lakers forum on the Internet today. I have yet to come across a forum that has the type of activity and number of members Laker Nation has, which is such a great thing for our fan base.

I really appreciate all the activity members bring to the forums. If you need Lakers news, our forums are the place to go. Even in a rough year for the Lakers, our forum is never lacking content and is always active.

It is no secret that Laker Nation has gone through changes since 2007, when it was first created. Over time, we have seen both high points and low points of the site, but as a community, we have only gotten stronger.

Our forum staff is one of the best on the internet and have done a great job. None of us are paid for our time and effort we put in to make sure the forums run smoothly. As I've told others, we see everything but we also have lives outside of the forums. So while we may not get to something simple such as editing a thread title quickly, we know that it needs to happen and we do get around to it. So please, be patient with stuff like that.

LAKER NATION BLOG

In regards to the Laker Nation blog, we have had an overhaul in terms of staff since the summer. I am personally apart of the new staff and I can say that the staff in place is committed to bringing Laker Nation back to where it belongs.

The one thing I ask from our community is to have PATIENCE. With any successful sports blog, changes aren’t made over night. It takes time for things to take effect and that is exactly the situation right now as we are in a transition period.

So while many of you think there is no “passion” or “commitment” in regards to content produced from the staff and the website, I want to tell you that is 100% UNTRUE.

Below is the staff that will be ringing in a new era at LakerNation.com:

Alex Lambeth: Editor-In-Chief (@AlexLambeth)

Jory Dreher: Senior Editor (@Jay_Laker)

Anna Lisa Gonda: Staff Writer (@AnnaLBG)

Garrett Garcia: Staff Writer (@GarretGarcia)

Ash Kargaran: Staff Writer (@aakargaran)

Johnny Navarrette: Staff Writer (@JohnnyNav)

Kanta Ito: Staff Writer (@Kanta_B_Ito)

Robert Benitez: Staff Writer (@beeb0)

Oren Levy: Staff Writer (@LakerOren)

In addition, Jamie, Kam, Shane, David, and Jason are also part of this and will continue to be a driving force behind Laker Nation.

The Future of Laker Nation

While I will not go into detail about the plans of the staff, I can say we have a vision for this website that will bring us back to the elite Laker fan site we once were and to even exceed those expectations.

For those asking about behind-the-scenes material, we already have had Alex Lambeth out at practices, staff writers taking in games, as well as other things that will produce content fans will be excited about.

Again, this is a process that does not happen right away. We take great pride in our work and are committed to righting the ship but we cannot do it without the support of our community.

Unfortunately members have recently crossed the line of being disrespectful to our forum staff and our blog staff. As of this announcement, the disrespectful bashing of Laker Nation is over. We have no problem with criticism because we are in that business and are used to it, but there is a difference between constructive criticism and just going off on a disrespectful rant.

To put it simply, you are not obligated to be part of our community. If the disrespectful comments continue, I will take it upon myself to make sure you are not part of this site anymore. I do not want things to get to that point, but if you are going to blatantly disrespect our community, I’m not going to stand by and let Laker Nation have those types of members.

With that said, one of the main goals of our staff is to bring the blog and forums communities together. Over the last few years, both have played separate roles in the website and it should not be that way.

As we start implementing new things to the site, we will let you know. If you have questions or comments about something you would like to see, please feel free to let us know.

We do this because we love the LAKERS.

Most importantly?

We do this for the FANS. At the end of the day, we are in this together and cannot do this without you.

Ill be sure to start checking out the main site more often. Cant blame most members though for not respecting it. For the longest time it really hasn't changed and seemed to be an after compared to the forums. Glad to see progress though.

As I've said in another post, this forum has as really special group of active users, and that's probably the biggest reason for my activity. I don't see any reason for complaint now, as I'm pretty satisfied with what we have now. I really do think that this place is special, and I'm excited to see what's in the works.